A webcam on a computer monitor. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images

Police are investigating claims that a teenager killed himself because he was being blackmailed online.

Daniel Perry, 17, is thought to have fallen victim to a scam in which internet users are lured into webcam chats and then blackmailed with the footage.

The teenager is said to have believed he was talking to an American girl on Skype, but was told by blackmailers that the conversations had been recorded and would be shared with friends and family unless he paid up.

Daniel, from Dunfermline in Fife, died on 15 July. Police Scotland confirmed that officers were investigating the circumstances surrounding his death and urged anyone experiencing cyberbullying to report it.

It has been reported that anonymous users on the social media website Ask.fm had urged the teenager to kill himself about three months before he died.

The case follows that of 14-year-old Hannah Smith in Leicestershire, who took her own life after she was allegedly bullied online. Her funeral is on Friday. The operators of Ask.fm have been criticised for not doing enough to prevent abuse.

Daniel's mother told newspapers that she wanted to make other children and parents aware of the dangers. She said she wished she could tell her son that "nothing is ever that bad that you have to kill yourself".